J-hope W Magazine Full interview

A New Hope

BTS is ready to open the door to the new world. j-hope reveals his unlimited ambition and confidence through his solo project <Jack In The Box> with his fit firmly standing on his world, rather than the world the others are expecting. Everything here you’re about to see, is the j-hope you didn’t know.

It was beyond everyone’s imagination. When j-hope released one of the double title tracks of his solo, ‘More’ from <Jack In The Box> ahead of other tracks, people showed such an enthusiastic response. Given the journey which BTS has gone through and all the spotlight that was on them, their decision to focus and expand solo careers seems wise. BTS showed a meteoric rise, and if they were to deepen and widen their world, the name of the most popular boy group in the world will be much more solid. On the other hand, it is a challenge and almost an adventure to stand on the stage alone without the members. I always wondered how they – in their 20s – handle all the love and enthusiasm toward them. When j-hope roared ‘I Want Some More’ and raps ‘the fire too big to put out’, it sounded like a clever answer to the silly question of ‘taking up the weight’.

j-hope sitting in front of me for an interview seemed excited and even thrilled. Was he the most energetic member of the group? I distinctly remember when President Biden played ‘Butter’ with seven members before him, j-hope was the first one to start ‘seal-clapping’. Whenever I see his lively reaction, his moves are like a rhythmical performance. The minute we started shooting the cover of <W>, he switched his mode – he changed the air around him. He even created rhythm whilst standing still, with his slightly slanted shoulder and sleek silhouette. The last track of the album – another title song – <Arson> has j-hope walking amidst the explosion. Even there, his walk carries many emotions and meanings. It just comes to me that a musician’s performance is not just simple choreography, but a part of the act. We had an interview before the solo album was released on July 15th. <Jack In The Box> will be released in digital format and the Weverse Album version will be released on July 29th.

<W Korea> Hello, ‘Captain Jeong’. I see you are not switched to dance teacher mode yet.

j-hope Hahahaha. I am, indeed. It is nice to meet you.

Congratulations. Your solo album <Jack In The Box> is to release a week after.

I know! Finally, I guess.

You are the first runner to release a solo album. How do you feel now?

I don’t know how I feel right now (smile). First, it’s really hectic. I need to focus while checking every detail. I mean wow… I have no words to explain my feelings now.

On the first day of July, you unveiled one the of titles of the <Jack In The Box>, ‘More’. I found it impressive to see you playing with this intensity and confidence in the music video. It was a treat for the eyes, also.

I listened to all the songs before releasing ‘More’, and I was confident. With this quality, I thought I can show it to the world, you know to the ARMYs, other artists, and industry people. I put all of my heart in so I knew what I was doing.

You’ve been looking around to get some responses to the early release?

I looked up the fans’ reviews, and reaction videos, and most of them were close to my expectations. Those surprise faces, ‘j-hope? Seriously?’ Haha.

‘More’ is introduced as old-school hip-hop.

Actually, to talk about a specific genre of my music with my musical spectrum, um… I just like what I like so I don’t think you need to name the genres and define them. I try to accept things intuitively and express them, like ‘this mood needs this vibe’.

I heard a rock sound on ‘More’, and you appeared in the music video with a band session. And I came across many reactions like ‘What? j-hope is doing rock?’. But I take it you are not doing the rock, but including the rock sound to make more efficient expression and energy for the song.

You hit the spot there. ‘More’ was completed after a lot of thought, like ‘we need this sound at this point or it should be burst out here!’. Of course, I do love rock music. But I added those features just to amplify the vibe the song has. You might hear people say ‘What makes this song an old-school boom-bap hip hop? It has a rock chorus in it.” or “How can this be rock music? Too much this and that!”. But if you go through the whole album, you will see what I meant you to see.

So are you trying to explore various genres through the album?

Under some unity. I give each track a twist.

Many musicians don’t want to limit their music to one genre or one color. As long as you are not a critic, most listeners take the music intuitively as you said, or through the general feeling of the song, like visual expressions. In this sense, ‘More’ and ‘Arson’ are somewhat in line with each other.

You are correct. I had a clear message that I wanted to convey through the album. To tell the message, I need more strong sound and bold visual effects. ‘Arson’ is listed at the end of the album list. It is not common to put the title at the bottom. But I wanted to do that. The questions that I have been dealing with, Do I go for it, or do I need to take a break here, the trajectory of feelings regarding the question is captured in the album.

You ‘had a clear message’, meaning that you need to do more?

Yes, that is right.

Listening through all 10 tracks on the album, I wanted to ask you whether those are close to the ones that you are good at or the ones that you would like to do. But I think it’s closer to the j-hope at this moment or j-hope of the latest.

Yeah. Um… I focused on putting my emotions over the last years on the album more than anything. So my vibes as it is had limitations. I need darker colors to tell my stories and feelings. That is where the album begins.

The mixtape, <Hope World> in 2018, had one of its tracks has a motif of the novel <20,000 Leagues Under the Sea>. This time, you got a chance to see the deep inside of yourself.

It has been 10 years as BTS. As you know, after the mixed tape, we had unbelievable momentum. Those honorable moments… and at some time, we went through something bigger and toured around the world. Then I discovered the shadows of myself that I didn’t notice before. I needed a chance to display those. The most important thing when you write a song is that you have a story. A story gives sincerity to music and motivation to work. That came to me. ‘I have a story to tell and I need to speak’.

I want to know where the title ‘Jack In The Box’ came from.

It occurred to me that the music j-hope has been doing may be stuck in a box. Then BTS performed in a stadium, spoke at UN General Assembly, got to stand on a huge stage for Grammy Award, then to the White House…Many feelings were built up through those experiences and finally were taken out of the box. The very concept of ‘Jack In The Box’ is the one I’ve been discussing with Bang PD long before my debut. Well, I have ‘hope’ in my name. We talked about how I would be a lasting ‘hope’ of BTS, and jump out as to surprise the world.

Why would you think that the past has been ‘inside of the box’? I know it is a metaphor but why?

There was some immature part of my music in the past, naturally. The immaturity has its own vibe and I do not want to deny those times. However, I wanted to bring out the darker, somewhat serious, and agonizing self, apart from the bright side that people are used to. People see me as always upbeat and full of energy but the moment I stepped inside home, I am literally, knocked out. That makes me wonder, which one is truly myself. I figured that I do come on both sides and decided to open the box and show a little more of me.

Tracing what BTS has achieved over the years, it seems like you have taken around the planet. Sometimes you were grateful, and sometimes you were overwhelmed. Then the voice inside you gives you the answer; ‘Thirsty!’, ‘I Want Some More!’ and ‘Right, I am the one who lit the fire’.

Right. I want to do more and I want to look cooler. I have this idea ‘When the light is out, I will be the one who lights the fire again.’ Working on this album made sure that I am the person who needs work. I mean, working on something sets my heart beating. Even though I’m sleep-deprived, tired, and hectic, taking a rest could not help me. I wrote the song for the album during the Pandemic. It was ‘leisurely’, compared to the past, so I could realize it for sure. Time passes by and life goes on, so I could not stand myself. ‘Even though it’s immature ambition, I need to do something’, I thought.

You are a creator and a performer. The pandemic has changed the ‘contact point’, your settings, and your stage.

The audience and their artists communicate through performances. We need to give and take, and share each other’s energy. If it’s not a face-to-face performance, it was not enough for me, and us.

So, being a BTS member, you have more stories to tell and the Pandemic definitely has some effect on the album.

I started working on the album after the Pandemic, maybe in 2020. I had to halt the individual project because BTS has things to do. I got down to working on the album at the end of the last year. It was after the concert in LA, around the time when I could take days off and the pandemic situation was getting better. I worked like mad for about a month and a half. It is really hard to concentrate fully on something usually, because of the schedule. I knew that the minute I thought ‘I gotta do this’, I needed to do it or the chance will be blown away. So I never left the studio.

<Hope World> is a mixtape you released in 2018 on SoundCloud. It literally is your debut mixtape with your name on it. I believe it was a great experience before the solo. Did you have any lessons learned from it?

Wow, I learned too much actually. I listened to all the songs I wrote before working on the solo. ‘1 Verse’ from 2015, songs from the mixtape from 2018, and ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ in 2019… I wanted to showcase my moves and the chill vibes from LA. And the mixtape displays the vibes that are only possible at that time. But I could not tell whether they have a theme or a uniformity. I wanted to do lots of things, this and that. ‘What did I really want to do back then?’ ‘The next album needs to have some kind of unity’, I thought. If you listened to RM’s mixtape, you can tell his has unity. Also, there’s something in Agust D, Suga’s mixtape.

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There is a time you want to boast the variety and there is a time when you need to focus on your strength.

I listened to other members’ mix tapes and mine and was inspired and I could clear my head. The members are my biggest motivation. Actually, RM is the first one I played my album to.

Oh my. What was his reaction?

I took him by surprise. He said, ‘Hobi I didn’t know you would do this genre of music.’ He noticed that I tried something different and add some uniformity to the album.

In a recent interview with Weverse Magazine, you highlighted the importance of keeping the record. It may as well be unsatisfying, unveiling the mixtape is also your record to keep. The memos and albums will do so.

It really does. You know, I opened Pandora’s box myself a few days ago. I found my old phone. I went through all the pictures I took in Hawaii and they’re just… (laugh) But it made my heart melt a bit. The record has its purposes and meanings.

In the interview from last year, you talked about slumps and dilemmas. Were those about the ‘Do I go for it, or do I need to take a break here?’, the emotional theme of the solo?

Um… I had a meltdown around that time. I played a few works for my solo album to the producers I know. And their reaction was not what I expected. But you know what’s funny though? I got more creative doing a fresh start. I erased them all, and it just cleared my mind. I do not avoid challenges and slumps. I am the kind of person who encounters and overcomes it. Like, ‘Let’s just do it’. <Jack In The Box> actually walks through the journey.

What do you think is your best characteristic?

Embracing. I know I can be embracing. I believe my parents played a huge role in this. I know how to accept. I like to listen rather than speak. If someone is to pour out their emotions on me, I can sit there and listen to them. Whatever reaction and feedback you have on me, I would take it as an opportunity to grow and advance. And more, I am really good at reading people’s minds (giggle). So it puts me in a good position as a middle man in the group.

Your first encounter with music is through dancing. Your ability to embrace might have held a critical role when you overcome to learn rap, compose, and write lyrics.

Oh, I believe I would ‘enjoy’ them instead of ‘overcome’ them when it comes to those kinds of tasks. ‘A dancer boy from Gwangju’ is my foundation. From that, I pulled it off one by one, thinking, ‘Okay, this is my first time. So what? Let’s just give it a try.’ When I accomplished one, ‘Oh, this is how it turns out. Fun!’. I need to take an interest first to do something.

I guess the music you played to dance played a huge role in shaping your universe. What kind of music did you listen to?

When I was younger, definitely boom-bap. Old school and New Jack Swing as well. I danced locking to funk music, James Brown, you know. And Wu-Tang Clan, of course. Actually, ‘What If…’ from this album is the one I sampled ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’. Those times I danced to the music naturally built my foundation, I guess. In that sense, the album reflects my ‘identity’.

Can we really turn our heads away from the trend? Did you ever think about adding a bit of what’s in the pop market?

No. If I thought about the trend even a bit, it changed the album upside down. I hear House music a lot these days, like the one you might hear in a club. Getting on a chart was never an option for me from the start, it was just about being me, doing what I want to do.

What about Lollapalooza? It’s a music festival in Chicago in July. It will be a big stage to stand alone, the biggest challenge.

I can say it with one word. Lollapalooza is a challenge, a challenge! How can I stay calm? I am working hard and have this huge respect for all the solo artists (clapping). It’s not easy to perform several songs live in a row. I feel the absence of the members, I miss them.

What do you know about Lollapalooza?

Chicago’s iconic music festival. My favorite artists have been on the stage. I’ve seen Tyler, the Creator’s performance once and it was awesome.

With your solo album release and a festival solo performance before you, does your desire tell you ‘I want to be recognized’?

I know I have goals and ambition, but it’s rather close to ‘I want people to know that I exist here’. That is the reason I planned the listening party and joined Lollapalooza. Those are huge events that make me wonder if I can do this. You know I can just call people I know and perform. But the music festival is the place where I can get a sober assessment of the audience. They will jump and dance if I am any good. If I suck, they will not react. I really need to be on the stage alone.

What would you do if your solo album is not well-received?

Oh, that’s my burden to take. I would ask myself, was I too arrogant? Did I just do what I like? And learn my lesson.

You cannot imagine how excited and happy you looked through the whole interview. I want to ask you about your dream, but right now you have a box to open and jump out of, right? (laugh)

Yeah, I am one step away from my dream, ‘Focus on what you’re doing right now’. This is my dream now. I wonder if there would be another time in life that is this important.

What do you need, to keep your fire alive, or to light it bigger?

I need people to listen to my music and follow my trails. And, a sane mentality.